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John Irving

A Son of the Circus Paperback – August 30, 1995

by John Irving (Author)

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"A SON OF THE CIRCUS IS COMIC GENIUS....GET READY FOR IRVING'S MOST RAUCOUS NOVEL TO DATE."
--The Boston Globe
"Dr. Farrokh Daruwalla, reared in Bombay by maverick foes of tradition, educated in Vienna, married to an Austrian and long a resident of Toronto, is a 59-year-old without a country, culture or religion to call his own....The novel may not be 'about' India, but Irving's imagined India, which Daruwalla visits periodically, is a remarkable achievement--a pandemonium of servants and clubmen, dwarf clowns and transvestite whores, missionaries and movie stars. This is a land of energetic colliding egos, of modern media clashing with ancient cultures, of broken sexual boundaries."
--New York Newsday
"HIS MOST DARING AND MOST VIBRANT NOVEL...The story of circus-as-India is told with gusto and delightful irreverence."
--Bharati Mukherjee
The Washington Post Book World
"Ringmaster Irving introduces act after act, until three (or more) rings are awhirl at a lunatic pace....[He] spills characters from his imagination as agilely as improbable numbers of clowns pile out of a tiny car....His Bombay and his Indian characters are vibrant and convincing."
--The Wall Street Journal
"IRRESISTIBLE...POWERFUL...Irving's gift for dialogue shines."
--Chicago Tribune

Print length

682 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Ballantine Books
Publication date

August 30, 1995
Dimensions

4.17 x 1.11 x 6.86 inches
ISBN-10

0345389964
ISBN-13

978-0345389961
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Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

OF THE CIRCUS IS COMIC GENIUS....GET READY FOR IRVING'S MOST RAUCOUS NOVEL TO DATE."
--The Boston Globe
"Dr. Farrokh Daruwalla, reared in Bombay by maverick foes of tradition, educated in Vienna, married to an Austrian and long a resident of Toronto, is a 59-year-old without a country, culture or religion to call his own....The novel may not be 'about' India, but Irving's imagined India, which Daruwalla visits periodically, is a remarkable achievement--a pandemonium of servants and clubmen, dwarf clowns and transvestite whores, missionaries and movie stars. This is a land of energetic colliding egos, of modern media clashing with ancient cultures, of broken sexual boundaries."
--New York Newsday
"HIS MOST DARING AND MOST VIBRANT NOVEL...The story of circus-as-India is told with gusto and delightful irreverence."
--Bharati Mukherjee
The Washington Post Book World
"Ringmaster Irving introduces act after act, until three (or more) r

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ballantine Books; First Edition (August 30, 1995)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 682 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0345389964
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0345389961
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.17 x 1.11 x 6.86 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,886,773 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #28,676 in Psychological Fiction (Books)
- #31,895 in Psychological Thrillers (Books)
- #178,733 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
712 ratings

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John Irving

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John Irving published his first novel, Setting Free the Bears, in 1968. He has been nominated for a National Book Award three times-winning once, in 1980, for the novel The World According to Garp. He also received an O. Henry Award, in 1981, for the short story "Interior Space." In 1992, Mr. Irving was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In 2000, he won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules-a film with seven Academy Award nominations. In 2001, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

For more information about the author, please visit www.john-irving.com

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5

712 global ratings

5 star		50%
4 star		28%
3 star		12%
2 star		5%
1 star		4%

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Dabbler

I keep hoping and then am disappointed in his novels

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 12, 2022

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The early chapters were so entertaining. I love all the clever rabbit trails and creative tangents he goes on in world building. Pure genius! And I cannot fathom the research that goes into his books!
Then comes the weird sexuality and gender stuff. It is just fatiguing to me to try to wade through. I love the characters, I want to learn how the story turns out, but I just have to give up. And it isn't that all that sexuality is titillating, it just IS. Even the characters aren't particularly aroused by it, but why does so much of it have to be a huge feature of the plot? Irving consistently writes bizarre characters and stories that are quirky, but there always to be a non-erotic sexual angle...
This has happened with almost all John Irving books I've ready except for APFOM.
I had to give up on this one. I'll likely just go online to read a cliff or monarch notes to see how it ended up.

6 people found this helpful

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Judith K. Hecker

An amazing description of the immigrant state of mind

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 27, 2017

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I found A Son of the Circus to be an exceptional book even for a man of outstanding genius such as John Irving. What most impressed me was his ability to convey the experience of the immigrant, that psychological sense of otherness, of not belonging anymore, either to your country of origin or the country where you currently live. The book's protagonist, Dr. Daruwalla, embodies the immigrant's experience and the yearning to belong to a community. Born in India, having studied in Austria, and currently living in Canada he feels "other" any place he goes to. He tries to maintain his ties to India by keeping an apartment, belonging to a local club, researching Indian dwarfs and practicing orthopedics there for part of the time, but he can no longer perceive things in the country of his birth with the attitudes of an Indian. The same is true of his life in Canada, where he has a house and an established medical practice, volunteers at a hospice and establishes a close friendship with a native Canadian surgeon. Yet he is easily recognized as a foreigner and exposed to violence because of the color of his skin. He eventually comes to the conclusion that the identity that is most expresses his status is that of "a son of the circus." This is Dr. Daruwalla'a answer to the question "Where are you from?" which he is asked by a young child. For more and more people in our globalized society, this answer embodies their experiences of otherness and non-belonging and existence in a mental state of betwixt-and-between, much like wandering circus acrobats sky walking without a safety net. Thank you, John Irving, for carrying us through a long, hilarious series of adventures in another country, another culture, limited only by your amazing, outrageous imagination.

32 people found this helpful

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Brian McCann

A fabulous tale

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 10, 2022

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Not sure why I waited almost 30 years to read this novel. A SON OF THE CIRCUS is first-rate Irving!!

2 people found this helpful

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S. Pirtle

Hands down one of the best books for long travel

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 17, 2013

Verified Purchase

I bought this book in audio form years ago (On cassette tapes!) for a drive from the east coast to Los Angles. I found myself driving longer each day, and cutting meal hours short, as I wanted to keep listening to the story. As I came over the crest of the hill on I-10, and could see Los Angles against the setting sun, the last words were spoken.
Later, when I was backpacking around Europe I bought the hard copy to keep me company. Since then I read the old paper back a few more times, and replaced it when It got ragged.
When it became available on CD I bought another copy and listened to it again on a road trip from Georgia to Seattle, as I followed my husband driving his car, to his assignment on a Coast Guard Icebreaker.
I ripped it from the CD to my first I-pod and listened to it while sailing aboard interrelationships to Northern Europe, converting my watch partners into John Irving fans.
Presently I bought the Kindle addition reviewed here. I made four trips to Europe with Dr Darawalla and enjoyed his company as aways. The other day I got the audio version from Audible. ... No telling what adventure it will keep me company on.

5 people found this helpful

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Classic John Irving, over-the-top and yet still literary...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 18, 2010

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John Irving has the ability to make a plot worthy of Jerry Springer still feel like a literary masterpiece. This book is easy to read, long, satisfying, amusing, whimsical, and it shows a certain degree of chutzpah (or arrogance) for a wealthy white author to tackle the messy human conundrum that is India. He can only do it by maintaining that laugh-or-you-will-cry bittersweet tone that he does so very well. That slightly laughing tone pours all over the book to smooth out its jagged edges. I was appropriately uncomfortable on almost every page as the author laid out India in all its quirky and religiously saturated poverty-level wonder of squalor and stink. The main character (whom I miss now that the book is finished, like a departed friend) is an excellent vehicle for mixing in a sort of fondness for India "despite everything." In fact, one of the driving themes in the book is that it's tough not to deeply love India... in spite of its filth and constant circus-like insanity. Great book. After you read it, tell me, did I just give away the title? ;)

14 people found this helpful

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Peripatetic

Best Irving novel ever written

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 29, 2007

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I'm going to be honest, I'm partial to this book. I'm Indian, so anything related to India catches my eye. But I'm a stickler for good literature, and here, again, Irving shines. Regardless of the 600+ pages, I couldn't put this book down. Some say it is a little slow and dry, but that's India! Irving does a fantastic job on his research, this story is very true to life. The plot is gripping and exciting: dwarves, transvestites, actors, doctors, murder, suspense, intrigue. It has it all. I would definately recommend this book for the serious reader with an open mind concerning other cultures. It's also a great insight into Indian life as well. Five stars!

13 people found this helpful

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Jason Weber

Exquisite

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 19, 2018

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Quite simply, one of my all time favorite books. This was my second read. Just as wonderful as the first. Vivid, quirky characters . A whodunnit in Bombay. Chapters of exploring flashbacks. Plot lines weaving and crossing in amusing, shockingly provocative ways. Descriptions that brought the various cast and locations to life in sometimes harsh but always interesting ways. I look forward to reading more of Irving’s work. This is a gem in an brilliant and illustrious career. Bravo!

17 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Benjamin

Captivating - and beautifully written

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 28, 2013

Verified Purchase

Now a Canadian citizen, Dr Farrokh Daruwalla lives and works in Canada but spends some time each year in his place of birth, Bombay, and it is in Bombay and India that we spend our time with him. He maintains his own apartment there with a staff, and pursues his interest in the dwarfs who work in the circuses; and it is in the circus that is seems we might be spending most of our time - but the action does move elsewhere, and often back in time.

As we would expect with John Irving the story is far from straight forward, and includes in addition to the dwarfs, the low life of Bombay including beggars and prostitutes, actors and film stars, gays, transsexuals and other variations, twins, a handsome Bombay film star as much hated as he is loved, and an unusually honest police officer among others. Much of the action centres around the Duckworth Club, a very respectable club with a twenty year waiting list for members. But bringing everything together is a murder that proves to be more than an isolated case.

Farrokh, a family man now in his late fifties, becomes involved with the murders, he has a connection with the first, and he is there when the latest occurs, and his penchant for writing detective stories ensures his involvement.

The Son of the Circus I consider one of Irving's best efforts. Initially I must admit I did not find it immediately involving, but once we got beyond the circus and met met some of the other characters I was completely drawn in and found it captivating, with a number of very endearing characters - along with one or two villains.

2 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

One of my favorite books

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 17, 2013

Verified Purchase

This is a great Bollywood of a book, slightly different from other John Irving stories. It contains all the great Bollywood story lines including twins separated at birth, Indian circuses and dwarfs.
But it is not however a simple a story.. It has a pathos which makes it rise above the expected, in the 'hero's' conflicting feelings about India and his continuing need to return to this country where he feels like a stranger in a strange land. It is also a thriller, has a fascinating serial killer, and enough descriptions of some of the cults and religions of India to keep one interested and intrigued.

I have read the book many times and each time I read it I never want it to end. I have bought it now in e-book

One person found this helpful

Amanda

Not for me

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 21, 2021

Verified Purchase

I found this a very dry read and am ashamed to say that I gave up 4 chapters in.
Just not my cup of tea.

Dazziii

brilliant John Irving saga

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 15, 2023

Verified Purchase

Best novel I’ve read for a long time. Irving has a wonderful sense of the ridiculous, but never strays into satire. I laughed out loud more than once.

C KHAN

around India

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 21, 2013

Verified Purchase

Typical gripping John Irving book. Funny and sad. If you love India and have travelled around the wonderful mystical country. You get lost in the story and the characters . It is one to re-read over and over and would m

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A Son of the Circus Paperback – August 30, 1995

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